Influencing factors of family resilience in stroke patients and family caregivers: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

2025-12-02
Frontiers in public health 13
- Jingran Yang
- Fang Ma
- Zhisong Chen
- Yu Wang
- Min Zhou
- Yimei Zhang
- Yangjuan Bai
- Qiulan Hu

PubMed: 41409700
DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1716213

Study Design

Type: Meta-Analysis
Population: stroke patients and family caregivers
Methods: systematic evaluation and meta-analysis of literature from multiple databases up to August 2025, using Review Manager 5.4 and Stata 16.0

Objective

To systematically evaluate and explore the current status and the factors influencing family resilience in stroke patients and family caregivers through meta-analysis.

Methods

This meta-analysis was registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) [CRD42024588737]. We conducted keyword search of PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Embase, American Psychological Association (APA), CNKI, SinoMed, CINAHL, Wan Fang Database, and VIP Database up to August 2025. The process of screening literature, extracting data, and assessing literature quality were executed by two researchers by carefully reading the titles, abstracts, and entire texts. Meta-analysis was performed using Review Manager 5.4 and Stata 16.0 software after extracting relevant data.

Results

Seventeen papers were finally included, with a cumulative total of 4,252 people surveyed. The results indicated that family caregivers had a higher level of family resilience than stroke patients. Additionally, no statistically significant relationship was found between family resilience and any of the examined demographic factors, including the patients' gender, marital status, occupational status, disease duration, stroke history, and stroke type, as well as the family caregivers' gender, religion, residence type, chronic disease status, and the presence of co-caregivers. Patients' family function, social support, self-efficacy, and positive coping were statistically significantly related to their family resilience. Similarly, family caregivers' family function, social support, self-efficacy, positive coping, and burden were associated with their family resilience. However, negative coping by neither patients nor caregivers had a significant effect on family resilience.

Conclusion

This study explored the factors influencing family resilience from the dual perspectives of stroke patients and family caregivers. The results should be applied in clinical practice to guide interventions for improving family resilience, thereby helping stroke patients and family caregivers cope with the challenges and rehabilitation process following a stroke. However, future longitudinal research is still needed to verify the dynamic changes and mechanisms of family resilience.

Systematic review registration

https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42024588737, identifier (CRD42024588737).